Olympic Endorsements

By Tom Flynn

As we all know our economy is not exactly doing well at this point in time.  We just managed to pass the bailout plan which hopefully will help solve the mortgage crisis that we currently are facing.  With that being said, this mortgage crisis has stretched out its arms and has had an effect on every person and also every industry throughout this country.  Not only has it affected the financial markets it has also reached out to the sports world. 

            Usually when the Olympic Games finish there will be a numerous amount of athletes that seal up endorsement deals.  For example after the Athens games in 2004 Lauryn Williams had announced a deal with Nike and gymnast Paul Hamm with Marigold Foods; the list can go on.  However, this is not the case for athletes who participated in the Beijing games.  With the economy that we are dealing with right now, many companies have put a hold on new endorsement deals for Olympians.  For instance, gymnast Shawn Johnson has been talking to a few companies for endorsements, but the companies has repeatedly told her they would not do anything until the first quarter of 2009.  This goes the same for many other athletes, but of course there are some exceptions.

            Obviously the most visible athletes of the Beijing games will likely not be affected by this.  For example, Michael Phelps has signed with a dozen different companies and now you see his face everywhere. I guess you can say companies aren’t crossing out endorsements entirely, but instead they are just acting a little bit more cautiously due to our down economy.